Book of Common Prayer

78 Listen, O my people, to my teaching.
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
² I will offer^[b] a parable with my mouth.
I will pour out riddles from long ago,
³ that we have heard and known,
and our ancestors^[c] have told us.
⁴ We will not hide them from their children,^[d]
telling the next generation the praises of Yahweh,
and his power and his wonders that he has done.
⁵ For he established a testimony in Jacob,
and appointed a law^[e] in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors^[f]
to teach to their children,
⁶ so that the next generation might know—
children yet to be born—
that they might rise up and tell their children,
⁷ that they might set their confidence in God,
and not forget the deeds of God,
but keep his commandments,
⁸ and not be like their ancestors,^[g]
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that did not make ready its heart,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.
⁹ The sons of Ephraim, armed with archers,^[h]
turned back on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They did not keep the covenant of God
and refused to go in his law.^[i]
11 They also forgot his deeds,
and his wonders that he had shown them.
¹² In front of their ancestors^[j] he did a wonder,
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
¹³ He split the sea and caused them to go over,
and he caused waters to stand like a heap.
¹⁴ And he led them with the cloud by day,
and all night with a fiery light.
¹⁵ He caused rocks to split in the wilderness
and provided drink abundantly as from the depths.
¹⁶ And he brought streams out of the rock
and caused water to flow down like rivers.
¹⁷ But they sinned still further against him
by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
¹⁸ And they tested God in their heart
by asking food for their craving.^[k]
19 And they spoke against God.
They said, “Is God able
to prepare a table in the wilderness?
²⁰ Yes, he struck the rock and water flowed
and streams gushed out,
but can he also give food
or provide meat for his people?”
²¹ Therefore Yahweh heard
and he was very angry,
and a fire was kindled against Jacob,
and his anger also rose up against Israel,
²² because they did not believe God,
and they did not trust his salvation.
²³ Nevertheless, he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
²⁴ and rained down on them manna to eat
and gave them the grain of heaven.
²⁵ Humankind ate the bread of angels.^[l]
He sent them food enough to be satisfied.
²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens
and drove along the south wind by his strength.
²⁷ Then he rained meat on them like dust,
even winged birds^[m] like the sand of the seas.
²⁸ He caused them to fall in the midst of his camp,
all around his dwellings.
²⁹ So they ate and were well filled,
and he brought about what they craved.
³⁰ They had not yet turned aside from their craving,
while their food was still in their mouth,
³¹ the anger of God rose against them,
and he killed some of the stoutest of them,
even the young men of Israel he caused to bow down in death.
³² In spite of all this they sinned further
and did not believe his wonders.
³³ And he consumed their days with futility ^[n]
their years with terror.^[o]
34 When he killed some of them, then they sought him,
and repented and earnestly sought God.
³⁵ And they remembered that God was their rock,
and God Most High their redeemer.
³⁶ But they enticed him with their mouth
and lied to him with their tongue.
³⁷ For their heart was not steadfast with him,
nor were they faithful to his covenant.
³⁸ But he was compassionate; he pardoned^[p] their guilt
and did not destroy them.
And many times he turned back his anger
and did not stir up all his wrath,
³⁹ for he remembered that they were flesh,
a passing wind that does not return.
⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and vexed him in the wasteland!
⁴¹ So they again tested God
and distressed^[q] the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² And they did not remember his power^[r]
when^[s] he redeemed them from the enemy,
⁴³ how he performed^[t] his signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the region of Zoan,
⁴⁴ when he turned their rivers^[u] to blood
so they could not drink from their streams.
⁴⁵ He sent among them flies that devoured them
and frogs that destroyed them.
⁴⁶ And he gave their crop to the locusts
and their labor to the locust.^[v]
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore trees with sleet.^[w]
48 He also handed their cattle over to the hail
and their livestock to the lightning bolts.
⁴⁹ He sent against them his fierce anger,
rage and indignation and trouble,
a band of destroying^[x] angels.
⁵⁰ He cleared a path for his anger.
He did not spare them^[y] from death
but handed their life over to the plague.
⁵¹ And he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the first of their virility in the tents of Ham.
⁵² Then he led out his people like sheep
and guided them like a herd in the wilderness.
⁵³ And he led them safely and they were not afraid,
but the sea covered their enemies.
⁵⁴ So he brought them to his holy territory,^[z]
this mountain his right hand acquired.^[aa]
55 And he drove out nations before them
and allocated them for an inheritance by boundary line,
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
⁵⁶ But they tested and rebelled against God Most High
and did not keep his statutes.
⁵⁷ And they turned and were treacherous like their ancestors.^[ab]
They twisted like a crooked^[ac] bow.
⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places,
and made him jealous with their images.
⁵⁹ God heard and he was very angry
and rejected Israel utterly.
⁶⁰ So he abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh,
the tent he had placed among humankind.
⁶¹ And he gave his strength into captivity
and his splendor into the hand of the enemy.
⁶² He also handed his people over to the sword,
and he was very angry with his inheritance.
⁶³ Fire devoured his young men,
and his young women^[ad] were not praised.
⁶⁴ His priests fell by the sword,
and his widows did not weep.
⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke like one who had been asleep,
awoke like a warrior who had been drunk with wine.^[ae]
66 And he beat back his enemies;
he gave them over to perpetual scorn.
⁶⁷ And he rejected the tent of Joseph,
and did not chose the tribe of Ephraim,
⁶⁸ but chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion^[af] that he loved.
⁶⁹ And he built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that he established forever.
⁷⁰ And he chose David his servant
and took him from the sheepfolds.
⁷¹ He brought him from following nursing ewes
to shepherd Jacob, his people,
and Israel, his inheritance.
⁷² And he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
and led them by the skillfulness of his hands.